Keep Black Studies in Ethnic Studies!

With the original plan to establish an autonomous Third World College within four to six months after the establishment of an interim Department of Ethnic Studies, by 1974, the demand for a Third World College had yet to coalesce. In 1972, the sudden firing of Ron Lewis, the African American Studies program coordinator since 1969, in favor of the Chancellor’s appointment of William Banks led to huge backlash. First off, it was in direct contradiction to the 1969 demands of full autonomy and control over hiring. Moreover, Banks’s vision for the African American Studies program was completely different than the original vision of Black Studies, including being sympathetic to a move to the College of Letters & Science while the rest of the Third World Studies programs had opposed such a move.

Without African American Studies, realizing the vision of a Third World College would be extremely difficult. Even in its short life, the University had found a way to begin to quickly strangle and stamp out the struggle for self determination. Only five years after the beginning of the original strike, students were forced to organize to save the programs that students before them had struggled for 10 weeks to win.